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यायावर दृष्टि हरियाली चौपाल.....ISSN 2394-7861

Thursday, August 08, 2013

Lords of the sands rule Uttar Pradesh

Bolstered by political patronage, the sand mafia is wreaking havoc
across the state's rivers and doesn't give two hoots about court orders.
The suspension of IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal has only strengthened
this belief.
The mafia's connections with politicians, policemen and bureaucrats
have enabled them to spread their roots across Vindhyachal, Bundelkhand,
Purvanchal and the
Ganga-Yamuna plains. Illegal mining is widespread in all rivers -
Ganga, Yamuna, Chambal, Ken, Betwa, Rapti and Gomti.
"It is a business without any regulations," says Ashish Sagar, an
activist who has been taking on the mafia in Banda. And it's highly
lucrative because, as Sagar puts it, "You sell something you haven't
produced. You buy nothing, but sell it well because there's high
demand."
The rise of many a sand miner has been meteoric. A small-time
worker of the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) in Banda (name withheld)
entered the business six months ago. Not only has he gained financially -
he owns an SUV now - but also politically as he has recently been made
an office-bearer of the party's local unit.
Another case in point is the jailed former BSP minister Babu
Singh Kushwaha, who was one of Banda's sand lords and went on to head
the mining department in the Mayawati regime.
Activists point out that all sand mining in the state is illegal
even if the state government has given them land. But their illegal jobs
do not bother them; what does is resistance. And they know how to crush
it.
On May 26 in Agra, a handful of musclemen employed by one of the
sand miners attacked a checking team that was chasing a tractor carrying
sand from the Yamuna riverbed. They tried to mow down the tehsildar and
topple the team's vehicle when the woman sub-divisional magistrate
(SDM) was inside it. While the SDM escaped unhurt, the tehsildar was
injured.
Another alleged incident of muscle-flexing was the murder of whistleblower Pale Ram Chauhan in Gautam Budh Nagar on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, people continue to die due to unchecked sand mining.
In Meerut region, over 20 children have died in two years when they got
trapped in the trenches dug by the sand mafia in Yamuna's shallow areas.
Given the illegal nature of the business, most mining takes place
at night, a fact Baghpat district magistrate Amrit Tripathi confirmed.
And these miners brazenly use earthmovers though the use of machines is
banned.
Recently, when the Allahabad district administration swooped down
on illegal miners, it seized 40,000 tractor-loads of sand and four
giant earthmovers.
In Banda alone, 940 hectares of riverside land is under a mining
lease. The scale of the business is so large there that over 2,500
sand-laden trucks go out of the Banda segment of National Highway 76
daily.
Link - http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Delhi-Metro/Lords-of-the-sands-rule-Uttar-Pradesh/Article1-1101980.aspx